Happy New Year, all. Here's a short one to ring in 2016 :)

BPOV

Moonlight and the scent of fresh cigarette smoke rouse me from a dreamless sleep. I reach for him and notice the window unlatched and swung open to the outside. He stands naked in front of it, staring out across the yard. Thin swirls of smoke trail from his nostrils. I slip out of bed and join him in the nude.

"You still smoke," I whisper, peppering kisses across his muscled back.

"Not as much as I used to," he answers in a deep voice. Turning in my embrace he holds up a half-empty pack of Marlboro Lights. "Found these on the shelf. Stale as hell but, I dunno, I had a sudden craving." He shrugs devilishly with a carnal gleam in his eye.

"Mmm I think know what you mean," I reply, slipping my arms around his narrow waist. "I'm having a sudden craving of my own."

Grabbing the back of his neck I pull him to my level and attack his lips with fresh hunger. They're chapped from hours of kissing and sucking but he doesn't seem to mind the attention. Groaning into my mouth he guides us back to the bed and lays me down, stretching over me with the entire length of his body. I'm wet from a mixture of our old and new fluids and desperate for him again. He buries his head in my neck and in one motion enters me fully. Stopping with a sharp hiss he takes a breath and begins to move in me. His thrusts are quick and shallow. His arms shake from fatigue and I can already feel him struggling to hang on.

"My God, Bella," he croaks, slowing his speed. "All night I tried to stay away from you when all I wanted to do was take you, hold you, and make love to you just like this."

I find him standing partially dressed in front of the wall of saddles.

"There you are." It's chilly in here and yet he's barefoot and unbuttoned. "What time is it?"

"Five-fifteen. My internal alarm clock doesn't let me sleep much later than that." He brushes the tangled mess of hair from my face and gifts me that magnificent love-doped smile. "How are you?" he asks, returning to his previous task of fiddling with a bridle buckle.

"Good," I answer. My face is already beginning to blush at the memories of last night. Being with Edward like that again, joined and rolling across the mattress as one. "You?"

"Yeah," he smiles wider. His eyes crinkle in the corners and goosebumps flood my skin. "I'm good, too."

We stare at each other for a little longer than necessary, both searching for a sign of some kind.

"I, um, I hope you didn't do anything last night that you didn't want to do," he starts. "Or regret," he continues. "Or felt that you were...that I…" His perfect nose scrunches and his hand darts to his hair. "We'd been drinking and-"

"Hey," I stop him. "Hey, look at me. Edward. You didn't force me to do anything. I wanted it to happen. Every magical second of it. I'm glad that it happened. More than glad."

His face breaks out in a spine-tingling look of relief and love. "I'm glad you're glad. I mean, I'm glad it happened too." He says it all so awkwardly that I can't help but giggle at his cuteness.

The soft sounds of whinnying pop us out of our bubble and remind us that we are not totally alone in here.

"I missed them," I say, gesturing in the direction of the stalls.

"Ah yes well they've missed you terribly as well. I could barely sleep nights for the pounding of hooves and pony sounds of mourning," he kids brightly. His light-hearted silliness makes me laugh out loud. This is the Edward I've missed more than anything – all boyish charm and crazy hair and playfulness. I wander past him into the first stall, my eyes never leaving the intensity of his gaze.

I immediately recognize it as Molly Mae's stall - the old mare Edward so loved. She was the one who carried us - me along with Edward's bleeding body - back to the house that fateful day in the fields. The mare who's stall Edward slept in whenever she was restless.

The stall is empty.

"Where's Molly Mae?" I ask. "Did you finally talk my father into giving her a room in the house?"

It's meant as a joke and I laugh but Edward's head is bowed, his forehead creased.

"She's gone. Your father had her put down a week after I got back from visiting you. I heard the rifle shot from the creek but of course it was too late." Edward gives a bitter chuckle and I flinch at its edge. "Carlisle did it. They were just waiting for me to walk away from her. I was sent to the creek to haul up water...I should have known."

"I'm sorry, Edward."

"Yeah well."

Desperate for his warm smile from just a few moments ago to return, I reach out and touch his sleeve, chancing contact and giving him a playful smirk.

"So who's the lucky horse blessed with all your love now?"

He looks right into my eyes with no trace of a smile but instead with a heart full of longing.

"There's no other. She was it."